Preformed expansion-joint strip



F. C. BOWMAN.

PREFORMED EXPANSION JOINT STRIP.

' APPLICATION FILED FEB. 21. 1914 Patented May 4, 1920.

2 SHEETSSHEET l.

F. C. BOWMAN; PREFORMED EXPANSION JOINT STRIP.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 2|, 1914 1,339,094, Patented May 4, 1920.

- 2 SHE ETSSHEET 2.

UNITED sT TEsPAT NT OFFICE.

BOWMAN, or wroivime, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE PHILIP- CAREY- nutcrac- TUBING COMPANY, or LOCKLAND, 01110, A conrona'rron or OHIO.

I'REFORMED EXPANSION-JQiNT STRIP.

5 State; of -Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Preformed Expansion-Joint Strips, of which the followin is a specification. 1

My invention relates to means for providing for the contraction and expansion of streetpavements and the like.

The object of-m'y invention is to prov1de a ready-made expansion joint strip which is cheap to manufacture and of great efliciency and durability in use, as well as being simple, and convenient to handle and install. I y

My invention consists in the construction,

combination and arrangement of parts and -2 in the completed elastic paving joint as an article of manufacture.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a sectionalperspective view of a brick-paved street showing my invention d2 5 installed therein; 1 n

Fig. 2 is a sectional perspective view of a rcementpaved treet with my invention installed in positioii'therein; j t Fig. 3"is a perspective view of part of my I expansion j oi'nt strip and Fig.4 is a'similar view of a modification thereof.

While in v ous uses, I ave illustrated and described it with special reference tostreet pavements.

The expansion joint strip constructed ac- L cording to myinvention comprises a body of a relatively thick cross-section of asphaltic compound of board like formationv '40 .and having relatively thin reinforcing and non-adhesive fibrous material, such as felt "or any, suitable elastic material which 31S capable of compression and expans'ionfor other similar non-adhesive reinforcing and retaining material. These surfacing sheets=,.,

are mounted directly upon the surface -;'of v the asphaltic body and held'thereon 'by.{th

' adhesive and ti king, .qualit ies fof thefas the completed product .thequality of, non.-',.

alt, and when so mountadthereon-giveto Specification of, Letters Patent.

invention is adapted for vari-' Patented May 4, 1920.

Application filed February 21, 1914-. Serial No. 820,179.-

nating the danger of the joints sticking together, particularly in warm weather or when in awarm place.

I prefer to construct the joint strip 1 as shown in Fig.- 3,' with relatively thin layers of wool-felt 2 and 3, saturated with asphaltic cement or compound, upon the sides of the relatively thick body. 4, of asphalt, thereby forming a sandwich joint of considerable elastic qualities and one which.

lends itself readily to varying conditions such as irregularities in .the abuttin side I walls of'the pavement such as an 0 set or corner 5, in Fig. 1, around and to which said joint may be readily. fitted to com- .pletely'fill the same, the heavy body'of a s-' phalt readily yieldin and shifting its mass between the relative y thin layers to conform to such conditions.

The surfacing" and reinforcing serve to hold therelatively large body of comparatively inexpensive asphaltic 'mae terialfrom running or shiftingunder pressure or otherwise out of its normal pre-- determined limits between said surfacing material. and when constructed as shown in Fig. 3 is considerably reinforced and,

strengthened so as to I withstand. undue wearingand abrasive action due to traffic over the paved street under varying con-' ditions of contraction and expansion of the pavement aridlof the'joint. This construction also prevents the joint ship from warping, buckling, g cracking or splitting.

'In the manufacture of my linvention the viscousasphaltic material 4 is formed in a semi-liquid state and is deposited upon; one

layers layer 2 of the surfacingmaterial, and by -irieans of rollers spread out to'the' desired thickness upon said surfacing material 2 retaining side surfacing sheets of eXteriorly-Q "andi's then passed beneath the other la er 3 of. surfacing material and compressed t ereia'gsinst andthe combined layers of. asphaltic material l and surfacing material 2 and 3 are pas'sed between rollers to compress elastic and non-adhesive properties, and other properties as. above pointed out.

3 into adhesive relaadhes vene'ss to adjacent layers whenpla'cedlike a board, but which'possesses all of the Y ..upon or against each other in ,storan r. handling the same,.thus completely g g AfterIthe' layers have been thus secured together' the are cut into strips of suitable lengtligland width, usually five feet long by six inches in width; the width and thickness varying according to the conditions to I be met. I prefer to form the joint 1 of various sizes from =3 to 1 inch in thickness. It may be readily cut to any desired length just previous to laying it, and its use is very convenient in this respect. If, for any reason, there should be any cracks or voids 6 in the relatively thick tion while in storage or transit or in' handling, installing or use; so that it forms a sufiiciently strong and resisting structure edgewise when placed in position in the street, and at the same time possessesade quate contracting and expanding qualities crosswise of said strip.

My invention is capable of some modification and variation from the structure as above described, as for instance, while I prefer to construct the article in the ,form of asandwich joint, the joint strip 1 may be formedwith a reinforcing and outwardly non-adhesive surface 7 upon one side only,

of the plastic material 4, as shown in Fig. 4; in which case greater care to prevent the joints 1 from sticking together during storage and handling is necessary.

strip constitutes a thoroughly practical and reliable substitute for the joints that have heretofore been formed during the process of construction of the pavement, as by temporarily placing strips of wood between the different portions of the" paving and then withdrawing the strips and pouring melted material into the space. thus left.

Coal-tar pitch, asphalt and other bituminous materials have been used to form joints in this manner. Such methods involve the extra labor of inserting and removing the wood strips; and also involve special apparatus and extra labor for melting the material, as well as involvin waste of the material in han ling, and danger of burningthe material in melting, as

well as of injury to the workmen. With all this inconvenience and extra expense, the results are not satisfactory o r uniform, because there is uncertainty as to the char acter and quality of a joint .thus made-by melting and pouring the material. With the practical and reliable ready-made joint which. I have invented, the joints maybe.

manufactured complete ready for. insertion when the pavement is laid, and may be laid with no more labor than has been required to lay the temporary wood strips. With the joints all made in the same factory by considerable theysame workmen, under uniform condiand apparatus'over the field of construction, it is possible to insure a uniform product and allow the nature and quality of the product to be accurately governed or varied to suit the practical conditions met with in space, to,.form .the joint, to run to the lowest ,tions not involving distribution of material part of the joint and-leave the higher parts void, under conditions of extremely high temperature, as durin hot weather. Thus, in street paving which (has considerable crowning, the melted and poured joint .will often be found to have become depleted in the high part of the street at the middle, as at A in Fig. 2, and an excess of the material will have collected at the low points at the sides of thestreet, as at B in Fig. 2. This trouble is also met with in melted and poured joints running longitudinally of the paving, as at C in Figs. 1 and 2, if' the pavin v is longitudinally inclined.

lVIy improved ready-made paving joint strip, with the bituminous material of suflicient bulk to give the required thickness p to the joint, but with the flankinglayers of My 1mproved ready-made expansion joint its intimate relation with the fibrous ma- .terial, is found in practice to maintain its even distribution of the material throughout the length of the joint, regardless of the differencein elevation between different parts of the structure. I

To substitute a ready-made paving joint strip constructed entirely of a strip of asphalt or other bituminous material or with the reinforcement inclosed therein, is objectionable, because of the adhesive charac ter of its surface, making storage and handling extremely difficult without damage to such ready-made joints due to their adhering to each other. The flanking fibrous strips or layers, while intimately associated with thebituminous material, present nonadhesive surfaces outward with the bitu- .minous material exposed only. on the edges;

and there is no trouble experienced in storage orhandling, and no damage or waste to"'the material} because each'piece of the ready-made joint stripis self-contained and distinct andremains so, even when stored for a considerable time vith the pieces in contact with each other.

The modification shown in Fig. 4, where the fibrous material is associated with the body of bituminous material upon only one side of saidbody, is inferior to my preferred construction with the fibrous material on both sides; but is found to be superior to melted and poured joints and to ready-made joint strips with both sides of the bituminous body exposed. With the fibrous material on one side only of the bituminous body a non-adhesive powdered coating, or a very thin non-adhesive coatlng of any kind, will prevent sticking of the pieces together in storage; and such a thickness of fibrous matrial on one side of the bituminous body lends considerable stability to the joint after it is installed,

and will generally prevent displacement of the material such as takes place in the other kinds of joints before mentioned.

The exposure of the bituminous material on the edges, while'being unobjectionable as above pointed out, also permits considerable economy of construction of the article as compared with ready-made joints where attempt is made to inclose the bituminous material on one or both edges; and the efficiency of the joint for compensating expansion and contraction is also somewhat lncreased. Thus it 1s entlrely practicable to manufacture myimproved paving joint by rolling the bituminous material and its re inforcement together and then cutting it into strips of the desired width and length giving the strips straight parallel edges,

which are not produced in merely the roll- 7 ing operation, but which are thus readily trimmed in the cutting, so that a neat and accurate product is attained. Structures of this character involving reinforcement or covering at the edges are produced by,

pouring the bituminous material in amelted condition into the reinforcing cover; and these structures therefore differ in properties from the joint which is poured directly into the space in the paving only in that they are portable, as willbe more fully pointed out. herein.

By making the reinforcing material sub stantially conterminous with thev bituminous material along both of the longer edges of the strip which form the top and bottom when the strip is in position in the V paving, the joint is given its highest dev'gree of freedom to change its thickness throughout its extent, because there is an entire absence of reinforcing material transversely of the joint, which while it may be more or less elastic when presented flatwise in the structure, as are the thicknesses of reinforcing material in my improved pav: ing joint, will not manifest their elasticity when pressure is imposed upon them-edgewise as it must be if such material is disposed across the paving joint either at the top or bottom edge or at the ends of the strip. When, thus disposed this material will buckle and produce -a disrupting action upon the bituminous interior or otherwise produce a distorting effect upon the'joint when the compressing strain is imposed upon it.

- My improved paving joint strip also has considerably more elasticity than the joint formed entirely of the bituminous material, V

either by melting or pouring or in a readymade joint composed only of the bituminous material, or a ready-made joint strip with the reinforcement embedded therein, especially where the embedded reinforcing material is not elastic. 'With a comparatively thin layer of fibrous material on one or'both sides of the bituminous body, yet with considerable thickness to this layer,

such as felt or paper affords, this fibrous reinforcement receives the first impact upon expansion of the paving structure, and will treme conditions.

Melted'and poured, paving joints, especially those formed of coal-tar pitch, are very uncertain in their action under conditions of expansion and contraction of the paving structure, being either too brittle to v afford the required elasticity, or, under conditions of high temperature, being greatly softened and pressed out of the joint and left protruding "therefrom upon the, con-- traction of the structure, to be worn away and wasted, with'the result that the joint is depleted and deteriorated and soondestroyed. vThis is also true ofready-made joint strips composed entirely of the bituminous material or made witht embedded reinforcement, because such material must be of about the same consistency and pr operties of the melted and poured joint on account of its molded construction and on account of the exposure of the bituminous material without exterior reinforcement.

My improved ready-made joint strip, by

havingthe exterior reinforcement, may be made by presslng the different elements of the structuretogether. 'This insures a bituminous body ofhigh and practically uniform ,density, which will not be extrudedso objectionably u 'derhigh temperature, and which will be protected at the surface by the exterior fibrous reinforcement, which will also relieve the bituminous body of the greater part of the required compression under expansion of the' paving structure as before described, a

- Having fully described my invention,

what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. As an article of manufacture, an expansion joint formed of plies of saturated, waterproofed, flexible, elastic material independent of each other, a layer of greater thickness than the said plies of suitable bituminous material bonding said plies in engagement with, but separate from, each other, the whole forming a non-deteriorating, unitary, board-like structure formed by compression.

2. As an article of manufacture, an expansion joint formed of a ply of flexible, elastic material saturated with asphalt, a

waterproofed flexible elastic material and a layer, having a greater thickness than the said plies, of suitable bituminous material, bondin said plies and spacing them, the whole forming a non-deteriorating unitary board-like structure.

4. As an article of manufacture, an expansion joint formed of a ply of flexible elastic material saturated with asphalt and a layer of asphalt "of greater thickness than said ply superposed upon and in engagement therewith forming a unitary boardlike structure.

pansion joint formed of a ply of flexible elastic material and a layer of asphalt of greater thickness than said ply superposed upon and in engagement therewith.

' FORD G.,BOWMAN. Witnesses:

H. C. INNES, JAMES N. RAMsEY.

- 3 5. As an article of manufacture, an ex 

